FC St. Pauli

Head coach Fabian Hürzeler: "We were very, very dominant in the first 30 minutes and played some excellent football. We had a good shape, played clear and simple football, and got our reward. The first goal was a bit lucky, but the others were really well worked. We dropped off a bit after that. We were less tidy and Sandhausen had one or two chances. The red card was another gamechanger, and then we made it 4-0. In the second half, the game drifted a bit. Nevertheless, we had one or two good chances to score. I'm happy the substitutes did well like Lars Ritzka, who set up Jackson Irvine's goal. We saw the game out professionally. It was an important step in the right direction. We're in a process and we'll keep going. We trying to keep our feet on the ground, we know where we come from. I wish Sandhausen all the best for the rest of the season."

Jackson Irvine: "We weren't happy with our performance after the Fürth game. You could tell in the dressing room that the lads were up for it and knew we had a tough away game ahead where we had to give our all. You could feel the energy before the game and we took it onto the pitch. We had to deal with a few counterattacks early on, but after that we took control. It's a good time to have a break now. We want to keep this superb run going when we come back. There's still a big gap to third. We want to carry on winning. It sounds easy, but it isn't. It gets tougher with every game you win. We have another hard game against Regensburg. We have to stay motivated and hungry to carry on winning and keep our run going."

Leart Paqarada: "We're confident, as you saw again today. We had a fantastic first half with some brilliantly worked goals. The game dropped off a bit after the sending-off, Sandhausen defended deep a man down.. We gave hardly anything away and wanted to keep a clean sheet and that's what we did. We'd have liked to score one or two more but it's OK, it was our eighth win on the trot.. It felt more like a home game thanks to the fans. It's simply outstanding that more than 2,500 St. Pauli supporters were here midday on a Sunday. We gave them their reward for coming, they can enjoy the afternoon."

Lukas Daschner: "We knew what to expect. It wasn't easy today, we worked hard for it. The pitch was really good and we were able to play our game on it. It was perhaps the best first half we've played. We made few mistakes and fashioned the goals well. We could have scored one or two more. The support from the fans was incredible, so it was more like a home game for us."

Tomas Oral (Sandhausen head coach): "As we've seen in recent weeks, St. Pauli were very dominant but we still had three chances on the break before they scored, including one huge one. We didn't finish cleanly enough and conceded the opener at the other end. From then on it was a different team than the one I know from the last few weeks. I don't want to be too hard on them with the way the game went today. The lads have been really good in recent weeks, but there was little of that in evidence after we went behind today. The game was near enough over for us with the sending off and then we conceded the fourth on the stroke of half-time. We fought back after the interval and did everything we could not to keep the score down. In the end, it was a highly deserved victory for St. Pauli and they were able to keep their run going. We, on the other hand, have to brush ourselves down over the next few days and see which players we’ll go into the relegation battle with."

Photos: Witters